Christmas Cheer
by Tonbo Koushaku
Summary: Lex draws the short straw on Christmas eve and has to suffer the consequences.


**Title:** Christmas Cheer

**Fandom:** The Tribe

**Pairing:** None, general

**Rating:** G

**Warnings:** None really.

**Summery:** Lex draws the short straw on Christmas eve and has to suffer the consequences.

**Author's Note:** Written for fanfic100's theme #092 (Christmas) at Livejournal.

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"How did I get forced into this one?" Those were the only whispered words that passed the lips of the black haired bad tempered Mallrat, words spoken through a huge beard created with cotton wool. Lex would be the first to state that red was a colour he looked good in, but the hat, huge makeshift jacket and trousers he was wearing now were not his style at all. He had waited until everyone was in bed before he had even considered putting on the outfit. He hadn't even been able to persuade Zandra to be his little helper for the evening no matter what he had promised her.

He had drawn the 'short straw', although as it was, the 'straws' had been pieces of paper handed out to the tribe and then handed back... all with his name on. Lex himself, who was at rather a disadvantage since he couldn't read or write, had attempted to draw his vote instead, but it seemed it had turned out looking more like him than anyone else, and so his own vote had gone towards himself as well. It was very nice to know that the Mallrats idea of fun was making him stalk around in the middle of the night dressed in a ridiculous costume.

It was of course, December 24th, and tonight, Lex was playing Santa, and the only people in the mall that didn't know were the three youngest members of the tribe, who were lying asleep and blissfully unaware of the excitement that they would wake to the next day... or so Lex thought. He had crept through the mall carrying a huge sack, filled with what he could only decide were rocks of some kind, considering how heavy it was. The door of their room was in sight, there was only a few metres to go and then he could get out of the outfit and go to bed, he reached it, he pushed it open, and pulled the sack from his back.

And then the attack began. 

He was pelted with pillows and cushions first, thousands of them it seemed, not one after the other, but in threes. Then blankets, covering his head so he couldn't see. Finally, a rope wrapped around his now covered body, and tied his arms tightly by his sides. Once he had been tripped to the ground, the sound of giggling erupted from around him.

"How did you know I was coming!" Lex growled, making no attempt to disguise his voice as the jolly Santa figure he was dressed as.

"Paul, he feels vibrations in the floor," came the response from one of the children, as if it should be obvious.

"We thought you were the Locos!" came a half frantic response from another. 

"You'll have more to worry about the Locos if you don't let me out of here!" A very uncharacteristic response for the loving Santa, but a very appropriate one for the one underneath the costume.

This was Lex, a member of their tribe, and definitely no danger to them (although, maybe, if they had been a few years older...), but they didn't untie those ropes that night... and nor did they sleep. Christmas cheer filled their room as they sat and opened all the presents that Santa had brought for them while Lex lay and listened to them from the doorway, unable to move and now fed up of trying to bargain with them for his freedom.

The next morning, Santa was found not stuck down the chimney as was traditional, but half way down the steps in the centre of the mall, still tied up with his head covered by a blanket. The journey that far had been hard, and by the time he had made it that far he was so exhausted that there was no way he could make it any further. He had fallen asleep right there, but had been hoping to wake before anyone found him...

And of course, he wasn't going to get a break, not even then. It wasn't until the entire tribe was gathered around those stairs that one of them thought to wake him. Then, there was Christmas cheer in the Phoenix Mall... apart from where Lex was concerned. He spent the entire day sulking in his bedroom, realising exactly why he hated Christmas so much.


End file.
